Forced birth control in Greenland violated women’s rights, experts find

What the report says

Greenland is moving to establish a truth and reconciliation commission after two expert reports on a decades-long forced contraception campaign could not agree on whether it amounted to genocide. According to Al Jazeera, the case involves Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, many of whom were fitted with IUDs or given contraceptive injections from the 1960s through the 1990s, sometimes without their consent or knowledge.

The inquiry was triggered after a joint Danish-Greenlandic investigation last year said at least 4,000 people were affected. That report said Danish authorities saw the policy as a way to reduce birth rates and family size, which they believed would improve living conditions in Greenland, a semi-sovereign Arctic territory of Denmark. Some women reported medical harm, including infections, scarring and later infertility.

Greenland’s justice minister said the new reports did not produce a unanimous finding on genocide, with one rejecting that conclusion and the other saying the scale of violations could not be determined. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the planned commission would focus on truth and reconciliation rather than blame. Denmark’s prime minister said Copenhagen would work with Greenland on the political process.

The issue remains politically sensitive. Victims and Greenland’s Siumut Party have questioned the handling of the investigation and the absence of Greenlandic Inuit among the experts. Al Jazeera also noted that Denmark apologized last year for the scheme, and its parliament has since agreed that affected women may seek compensation of up to 300,000 Danish crowns each.